She was a real-life heroine of the CIA hunt for Osama bin Laden, a headstrong young operative whose work tracking the al-Qaeda leader serves as the dramatic core of a Hollywood film set to premiere next week. Her CIA career has followed a more problematic script, however, since bin Laden was killed.

The operative, who remains under cover, was passed over for a promotion that many in the CIA thought would be impossible to withhold from someone who played such a key role in one of the most successful operations in agency history.

She's not Miss Congeniality, but that's not going to find Osama bin Laden. The agency is a funny place, very insular.

She has sparred with CIA colleagues over credit for the bin Laden mission. After being given a prestigious award for her work, she sent an email to dozens of other recipients saying they didn't deserve to share her accolades, current and former officials said.

The hunter: Jessica Chastain as Maya in Zero Dark Thirty, the film about the hunt for Osama bin Laden that caused fierce debate within the CIA and in the US Congress.

The woman has also come under scrutiny for her contacts with filmmakers and others about the bin Laden mission, part of a broader internal inquiry into the agency's co-operation on the new movie and other projects, former officials said.

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Her defenders say the operative has been treated unfairly, and even her critics acknowledge that her contributions to the bin Laden hunt were crucial. But the developments have cast a cloud over a career that is about to be bathed in the sort of cinematic glow ordinarily reserved for fictional Hollywood spies.

The female officer, who is in her 30s, is the model for the main character in Zero Dark Thirty, a film that chronicles the decade-long hunt for the al-Qaeda chief and that critics are describing as an Academy Award front-runner even before its December 19 release.

The character Maya, which is not the CIA operative's real name, is played by Jessica Chastain. Maya is portrayed as a gifted operative who spent years pursuing her conviction that al-Qaeda's courier network would lead to bin Laden, a conviction that proved correct.

Colleagues said the on-screen depiction captures the woman's dedication and combative temperament.

''She's not Miss Congeniality, but that's not going to find Osama bin Laden,'' said a former CIA associate, who added that the attention from filmmakers sent waves of envy through the agency's ranks.

''The agency is a funny place, very insular,'' he said.

The woman is not allowed to talk to journalists, and the CIA declined to answer questions about her, except to stress that the bin Laden mission involved an extensive team. ''Over the course of a decade, hundreds of analysts, operators and many others played key roles in the hunt,'' said agency spokeswoman Jennifer Youngblood.

The movie has been a source of controversy since it was revealed that the filmmakers - including director Kathryn Bigelow and writer Mark Boal - were given extensive access to officials at the White House, the Pentagon and the CIA.

Members of Congress have called for investigations into whether classified information was shared. The movie's release was delayed amid criticism that it amounted to a re-election ad for President Barack Obama.